Hayley Kirton covered law, professional services and banking at City A.M.

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ISDAFIX is used for valuing cash settlement of options on interest rate swaps (Source: Getty)

Hayley Kirton

Goldman Sachs has been ordered to pay $120m (£96.9m) today to settle a probe into attempts to fix a key benchmark rate.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) claims the banking giant, on a number of occasions between January 2007 and March 2012, attempted to manipulate the US Dollar International Swaps and Derivatives Association Fix (ISDAFIX) and also made various false reports concerning the benchmark rate.

As well as the penalty, the CFTC has also ordered the bank to take steps to make sure it can better detect and deter trades intended to rig rates.

Aitan Goelman, the CFTC's director of enforcement, said the details of today's settlement "demonstrates the breadth of this kind of misconduct across the industry, and within Goldman, the extent of the misconduct across trading desks and product lines".

Goelman added that his division would "continue to be vigilant and aggressive in protecting the integrity of the ISDAFIX and other important benchmarks relied upon by the markets".

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs said: "We are pleased to have resolved these matters and have already taken steps to enhance our policies and procedures."

ISDAFIX is used for valuing cash settlement of options on interest rate swaps.